The invention relates to a press for pressing out liquid-containing substances, especially musts. More specifically, it relates to a press of this type having: an at least partially cylindrical sieve wall; a pressing means disposed within the sieve wall which has a rotatable shaft with radial dividers to form a plurality of press chambers in which radially acting press means are disposed which divide the press chambers each into a pressure chamber and a press chamber open radially outwardly. There is also a charging station and a discharge station; and means for controlling the pressure in the pressure chambers for the timed radial forward pressing of the pressing means.
Presses of this kind are known in a variety of embodiments (German Federal Patent Nos. 27 14 184, 29 45 254 and 31 37 355). They permit a gentle expression of the liquids, but they all operate discontinuously. This means that first their working containers, press chambers or the like must be filled with the material, then the material must be pressed, and finally the remaining residue must be removed again from all of the press chambers. Thus on the one hand the performance, i.e., the throughput of material, is not always sufficiently high, while on the other hand automation of the overall pressing process is virtually impossible. Better performance could be achieved only by enlarging the press chambers, but this would involve a disproportionately high expenditure of material and costs, which is possible only within certain limits, and therefore is rejected for practical reasons.
In a known press which operates largely in a continuous or automatic manner (German Fed. Pat. No. 32 24 086) a press element in the form of a flexible membrane impervious to liquid is drawn onto a conveyor screw. Such presses have not proven practical mainly on account of constructional problems.
The invention is addressed to the object of permitting a largely continuous or automatic processing of the material even in a press of the kind referred to above, without having to sacrifice the advantage of the conventional membrane presses.